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Today I got back from two days in Cheticamp and the highlands plateau. I was doing an ornithology day with the StFX Field Biology Class...we were impressed to document the first (for the Atlas) Black-legged Kittiwakes breeding on Cheticamp Island (I have a photo, but it's through my scope - didn't turn out all that well). I then went up to the highlands' plateau with my summer student - we checked 8 nest boxes, including my most productive site, with no nests found. We did find the scattered bones of a moose - definitely a kill from last year. There was coyote scat all over. What a cool find that was. We couldn't get to my other nest boxes because there was a 2 m (yes, two metre) snow drift across the road. On the way home we stopped at Belle Cote (Inv. Co.), where a student and colleague both told me of a G Black-backed Gull colony. Wow...some nests are within metres of the road. There were some Herring Gulls around, but no sign of them nesting. There were also hundreds of Tree Swallows foraging over the mouth of the Margaree River and shoreline. On my way home, on my road, a Merlin came flying over the road carrying a very large prey item; out of the woods came a Barred Owl on its heels. WOW! The Merlin dropped the prey and chased the owl, which went into the woods. I quickly checked the prey...a Mourning Dove. I continued my drive home quickly so one or the other could hopefully retrieve the meal. Randy _________________________________ RF Lauff Way in the boonies of Antigonish County, NS.
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